Ready, Set, GO!

THERE’S NOTHING BETTER THAN GETTING THE ADRENALINE FLOWING WHEN ENJOYING THE OUTDOORS – AND, OF COURSE, A DAPPER MAN STILL WANTS TO LOOK GOOD DOING IT

COMPILED BY INGRID WOOD

WHEN YOU’RE OUT AND ABOUT AT A FRENZIED PACE, MAKE SURE YOU’RE EQUIPPED WITH THE RIGHT BEAUTY AND STYLE ACCESSORIES TO KEEP YOU ON TRACK

IT’S MONACO GRAND PRIX MONTH – ONE OF THE MOST GLAMOROUS RACES ON THE F1 CALENDAR – AND FORMER MOTOR RACER TURNED SKY F1 PRESENTER NAOMI SCHIFF WILL BE BRINGING US ALL THE ACTION. BORN IN BELGIUM TO A RWANDAN MOTHER AND BELGIAN FATHER AND RAISED IN SOUTH AFRICA, NAOMI SAYS IT FEELS LIKE HER CAREER HAS COME FULL CIRCLE

WORDS

IT’S NO SECRET that the world of Formula One is a rarified one. Just ask any of the 20 drivers on the grid how tough it was to get their hands onto the steering wheel of one of the fastest cars on the planet.

One has to give full credit, then, to 28-yearold Naomi Schiff – the newest member of the Sky TV F1 team – who has so elegantly turned a successful motor racing career into a life as an F1 presenter and analyst.

Naomi’s break into F1 presenting began last year, and it’s not an opportunity she takes for granted. “I have been on a journey to get somewhere my whole life, and for so long I didn’t know where it was going. Then last year I felt like I had landed where I’m supposed to be,” she says.

Naomi was born in Belgium but grew up in Sandton, Johannesburg, and it is here that the racing bug first bit. After a karting birthday party at the age of 11, she took up the sport full time and eventually followed her dreams to Europe. There, she carved out a successful career in the challenging world of motor racing. This culminated in a place on the grid at the W Series that had been launched in 2019 to create equal opportunities for female motor racers. By 2020, Naomi had taken on the role of diversity and inclusion ambassador for the W Series, but financial challenges have beset the all-woman championship, and its future seems uncertain.

Like so many other people who have been inspired by seven-time F1 world champion Lewis Hamilton, it was his career that set the tone for Naomi’s ambitions. She has previously shared the story of how, at the age of 14, Naomi and some classmates signed out of school early to watch Lewis race in a promotional event at the Kyalami Racetrack in 2010. Even though they couldn’t get in, she’ll never forget the moment Lewis came over to the fence to speak to them.

Many years later, Lewis continues to play an important role as an ally to Naomi. “When I was in W Series, he would share pictures of me as much as he could on his [social media] profile. He’s always said he wants to reach back and bring people forward, and I definitely felt that. Allyship is important for women in this sport, and to have that with someone who is at the top of the sport as I have with Lewis – I feel really, really lucky,” Naomi says.

It was also Lewis who came to Naomi’s defence last year when a troll tried to derail her rapid rise as a race analyst by calling the racing driver’s expertise into question. The naysayers’ opinions didn’t find any traction though, and Naomi was subsequently offered a much larger role in Sky TV‘s coverage of F1. We can expect to see her covering between 12 and 16 of this year’s 24 F1 races.

One of them is the Monaco Grand Prix – the race Naomi’s been most looking forward to attending this year. This will be the first time she experiences the race for herself in the most glamorous of places.

“Obviously, for all the drivers, this is the ultimate race to drive and win. In terms of the atmosphere and how spectacular of an event it is, it’s the pinnacle of the race calendar,” she says. Naomi will truly experience the glamorous side of things, hosting a Q&A session with the current world champion Max Verstappen and fellow Red Bull driver Sergio Pérez on the TAG Heuer Yacht.

Even though her motor racing career has taken a different direction, Naomi is still passionate about promoting women in motorsport and still believes we will one day see a woman behind the wheel of an F1 car.

However, a lot still needs to change in terms of development amongst female drivers. “That’s why the W Series and F1 Academy are so important – they show the world that this is a sport for women too. We need women to have equality as well as parity; they need the same level of opportunity consistently throughout their careers,” she says.

Naomi feels that her voice can make a difference by bringing opportunity to the world of sport for Africa too.

A Crawford College and Wits alumni, she now lives in Paris and spends most of her time on the road travelling to far-flung F1 destinations. Naomi still visits South Africa at least once a year; this year she’ll come three times. She met her partner here and feels very much at home down south.

“I love South Africa – it’s still my favourite place in the world, and I come back as often as I can.”

Naomi always kicks off a trip back home with a nostalgic drive past her old school and a chocolate croissant at Fournos or a visit to Tasha’s in Morningside. She loves the bush, and makes a beeline for the Pilanesberg whenever possible.

When she heard that the South African Grand Prix that had been mooted for 2023 was officially off the table, Naomi was heartbroken, but she believes it may still happen. “I have high hopes that there will be an African Grand Prix in some shape or form. Formula E was a good starting point, but it’s such a difficult time for Formula One to be trying to come to South Africa because the sport is booming and they have many big offers. I don’t know if South Africa was potentially not in a financial space to be able to do it. I just hope they’ll realise how important it is to have a race on every continent,” she says.

“I definitely feel a sense of responsibility to talk about this because there aren’t many of us in the room who can talk from the perspective that I can,” adds Naomi. “There are people in the F1 ecosystem that care about having an African Grand Prix, but I only have a small voice, and for it to happen there are going to have to be some of the bigger voices.”

Naomi takes every aspect of her role seriously, and realises how important the visual side of being a TV presenter is.

Dressing for television on the road is tough logistically, says Naomi, and that’s why she’s started working with stylists –chiefly to improve the sustainability of her wardrobe. Her first year in F1 presenting saw Naomi struggling to make sure she had the right clothes in the right place, which often meant buying a whole lot of clothes that she is unlikely to wear again. “I really want to build a relationship with the fashion brands and do more lending since it makes sense from a sustainability perspective,” says the presenter.

While the fashion is certainly secondary to her race analysis work, she believes it is an important opportunity for her to represent and express herself. “People are paying attention to these things, and I get a lot of lovely messages about my clothes and my hair – you can’t ignore it.”

Putting together a weekend wardrobe means making contingency plans for all types of weather, and Naomi needs to be in an outfit from early morning to late at night, as well as have a style progression over the course of the weekend. “I go from casual on a Thursday and then get smarter every day, with the emphasis on Sunday being the major look,” Naomi says. And while there are plenty of weather issues to consider when planning your trackside wardrobe, wind is probably the most challenging one. Apart from her stunning afro which needs controlling if wind is predicted, the matter of windswept skirts is more critical. Naomi says a female colleague introduced her to the solution early on: A visit to the Pirelli garage for some little lead weights that are used to balance the tyre rims. They work like a bomb on skirts too!

In just one year, Naomi’s life has certainly seen massive changes. Does she ever see herself returning to racing? She says she is incredibly grateful that her career path now provides her with financial stability in the sport that she loves, and it feels like she has come full circle. ■

Naomi And Cars

Dream racing rival: Probably Lewis. There is so much to learn from him – not only his driving ability, but also his character. I would learn quickly from his patience; he is so calm in the car. Your first car: A VW Polo. Current favourite mode of transport: An electric scooter – which has sadly been banned in Paris. Dream car: A Porsche 911 992 Turbo S. Dream family car: Mercedes-AMG G63. Car colour: Black, always.

FOR MANY, OWNING A SUPERCAR or an extreme sportscar is a symbol of success and achievement. But the real allure of a highperformance car lies in its ability to provide a driving experience that is both visceral and exhilarating. The sensation of hitting warp speed in just a few seconds surrounded by the intoxicating sound of the roaring engine, all while feeling the wind rushing past as you carve a tight corner at high speeds, add to the sheer thrill and excitement of owning a super sportscar. While extreme performance was earlier limited to track-only hyper sportscars, nowadays you can walk into a showroom and drive out in a road-legal yet track-ready car from mainstream automakers. These four extreme machines are equally as good for cruising the city streets as they are when hitting the apex on a track.

Mclaren Artura

The Artura is the first series-production high-performance hybrid supercar for McLaren. It condenses ground-breaking hybrid technology seen in the limited-run P1 and Speedtail hypercars into a relatively tamer road car. The Artura is underpinned by the new McLaren Carbon Lightweight Architecture, which together with 130kg of hybrid components, helps keep the car incredibly lightweight at a mere 1 498kg. Powered by a 3.0-litre twin-turbocharged V6 petrol engine and putting out 585 horsepower and 585Nm of torque, the Artura darts from 0-100km/h in just three seconds, 0-200km/h in 8.3 seconds and 0-300km/h in 21.5 seconds before hitting a top speed of 330km/h. But thanks to the electrification of its powertrain, despite all this firepower, the Artura boasts relatively lower emissions and can run in pure EV mode for up to 30km. The car also features a new eight-speed transmission and an advanced suspension system that uses sensors to adapt to road conditions in real time. The interior is minimal in its design but is equipped with the latest technology, including a high-resolution digital instrument cluster and a central touchscreen display.